Anonymous donor pledges $200,000 to help keep St. Rita School open

A group of parents, alumni and teachers is making an 11th-hour push to raise enough money to keep the school open for at least one more year. An anonymous donor has pledged to donate $200,000 to the cause if matching funds can be raised. So far, $40,000 to $50,000 has been pledged.

The Rev. Ken Weare, the parish priest who oversees St. Rita School, could not be reached for comment on the effort. Weare announced late last month that the parochial school, which opened its doors in 1957, would close this summer.

St. Rita School teaches children from preschool through eighth grade, but enrollment has dropped over the past two years from 151 to the current enrollment of 133. While most of the school's annual budget of $1.3 million comes from tuition, only 95 students are paying full tuition. The school is providing $158,000 in tuition assistance this year.

"I'm definitely fighting very hard to keep it open," said Brenna Gubbins of Fairfax, who has two daughters attending school there.

Gubbins got the ball rolling by organizing meetings at the St. Rita Church Hall on the previous two Sundays. Gubbins said more than 200 people attended the first meeting and about 100 returned for the second meeting.

Annie Braun of Fairfax, whose daughter started kindergarten at St. Rita School last fall, said, "We have a community that feels very strongly about the doors not being shut."

Braun said that at the first Sunday meeting some St. Rita middle-school students expressed their feelings about the planned closing by reading letters they'd written.

"It's just heartbreaking," Braun said.

A member of the group has also posted a petition on Change.org. The petition is addressed to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and Maureen Huntington, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The petition, which so far has 116 supporters, concludes by stating, "The closure of this school would have consequences for the entire community, not just the families it serves."

Charlynn Baumsteiger of Fairfax, a parent of three St. Rita alumni, said, "St. Rita is a very loving, supportive environment; it's a community. It's not just a school for the children; it's a school for the community."

Braun said, "The fear is that if the school were to go then the church is the next to go."

Gubbins said, "It is becoming a huge fear because the school feeds the church."

Michael Pon, a parent who has three daughters attending St. Rita, said, "The school is the life engine of the church; it creates a lot more energy."

Pon, who facilitated the Sunday meetings, said the booster group has requested a meeting with Monsignor James Tarantino, vicar for administration and moderator of the Curia for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, to review St. Rita's budget for next year.

"I'm confident he will meet with us," Pon said.

He said an effort is being made to get the parents who would enroll their children at St. Rita next year to make a $500 deposit now to demonstrate to the Catholic Church how committed the community is to keeping the school open.

The group's plan is to raise the money to keep the school open next year and then focus on building enrollment to boost revenue.

Braun said, "I feel like if we were given one more school year to meet the goals that we could do it."

Although other Catholic schools in Marin have said they will try to make room for St. Rita students, Braun worries there might not be room for every student who wants to attend parochial school.

"I think it helps especially during critical times in a child's life to be taught that there is a higher power," Braun said. "I know it definitely got me through some of my tough times as a teenager. There is a sense of compassion and sensitivity and promoting kindness that happen in a Catholic school, at least in St. Rita."

Pon said some students — regardless of their religious beliefs — will do better in the smaller, more intimate environment that a school like St. Rita provides.

He said, "The Catholicism and the religion is overall just teaching good values that anyone would teach their children, with or without the Bible being there."

Donations to keep St. Rita School open may be made by mailing a check — not cash — to St. Rita School, 102 Marinda Drive, Fairfax 94930. If the effort to save the school fails, all checks will be returned. The group seeking to keep the school open needs to raise as much money as possible over the next week.Annual fundraisers are still scheduled in coming months. The Bulldog Hustle, in which participants get sponsors to donate to the school based on how many laps they do around the school, is planned for April 19. That will be followed by a yard sale on May 4 and a golf tournament at San Geronimo Golf Course on May 10.